The world requires ever-increasing amounts of fuel for vehicle propulsion. Means of utilizing fuels needs to be accomplished more efficiently and with substantially lower carbon dioxide emissions and air pollutants such as NOxs. For vehicles powered by gas turbines, a new means of energy storage can recover substantial amounts of energy normally discarded in braking.
Gas turbines can be used in vehicles where they have the additional advantage of being highly fuel flexible and fuel tolerant. For example, gas turbines can be operated on a variety of fuels such as diesel, gasoline, ethanol, methanol, natural gas, biofuels and hydrogen. The efficient utilization of gas turbines can be improved by a high specific-energy storage means that can efficiently transfer stored heat energy, acquired by a regenerative braking system, to a gas turbine engine when required.
There remains a need for a compact, high-capacity energy storage system that can be used in conjunction with gas turbine engines to improve the overall fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.